The Spacefaring Brain: Serotonin, Stability, and the Future of Us

It started with an odd question. As I finished up yet another ham-fisted youtube video shoot, (this was on Flow State and how it is enhanced by both acupuncture and facial acupressure) I got to thinking about the neurotransmitter, GABA. It's incredible and yet very resistant to being played around with for any length of time. There are very tight parameters allowed for the critical Excitatory/Inhibitory (E/I) balance. There are lots of mechanisms which kick in to keep this balance because excitotoxicity and seizures increase outside of that range.

So it seemed that Nature really didn't like that system's critical neurotransmitter to be augmented.

"so it seems that nature has that tolerance range hardwired for a systems level reason. Are there neurotransmitters which are the opposite? Meaning, are there transmitters which nature seems to have wide open parameters for augmentation? If yes, then aren't those nature's way of telling us that augmentation in those nts might lead to some kind of neural/evolutionary level up?"

This was my question to the GPT 'AI Neurology'.

What followed was an interesting discussion about homeostatic plasticity vs adaptive potential and where trade-offs were between system stability and behavioral flexibility. I see it as the difference between a crocodile and a human brain. They have been around forever and we aren't looking so hot. Our brains need us to keeping rolling lucky sevens, the crocodiles could care less. The crocs though, don't have the potential for becoming a space faring species.

So the neurotransmitters Nature says we can play around with are:

• Dopamine

• Norepinephrine

• Acetylcholine

• Serotonin

I don't know about you but my system has dopamine offered to it on the regular. Our entire media, and thus human communal space, is one big dopamine hit. We have gotten so inundated with dopamine sources and signaling that part of keeping a healthy mind is to take, 'Dopamine Fasts" now as part of one's seasonal adjustments. We all know that it's not healthy but, you know, dopamine.

Norepinephrine is interesting but I'm kind of thinking we're running on max with that one as well. We now have an epidemic of, 'wired but tired'. NE and Dopa are close cousins so it makes sense. A dysfunctional couple. That's not going to get us our level up either.

An Ach path gets us accuracy uber alles. A species of life long learners who try not to forget anything and do things, not because of the reward (there isn't any), but because it's the correct thing to do. In this particular instance. Like that time you forgot to....

We are left with 5-HT, Serotonin. I kind of like that Nature thinks our best bet is in serotonin - It means learning from our mistakes, being less reactive, being open and adaptable in our thinking, and it means community. These are what Nature says gets us humans more happiness and, as a species, to level up. We can do that. As an individual human, if that's how Nature says I need to move in this world to do my evolutionary part, challenge accepted. I can think of worse things to live by.